A 180 Degree Turn
by Spangle
Summary: A very different type of Riku and Sora story. Sometimes things can be turned 180 degrees and still delight you the way they did when you saw them the first time, sometimes in ways you'd never expect. Poor Riku, how he loves Sora, can he express it?
1. Chapter 1

Spangle

A 180 Degree Turn

I

Riku fidgeted in his seat, the soft cushion was something he had grown unused to after his long absence from home. The theater was stuffy too, too small a space for him after having spent so long in an endless realm of…He shook his head, refusing to return there, even in his thoughts. Beside him Sora and Kairi laughed at something in the plot of the movie; Riku sighed with boredom at the simplicity of his friends. He turned his head on his hand slightly to look at Sora beside him, the younger boy's back was to him, his hands in the giant bucket of popcorn he and Kairi were sharing. Riku breathed deeply and sat up very straight, lifting his arms in a pretend yawn as he gingerly lay his right arm over Sora's shoulder.

"What are you doing…?" Sora leaned over a bit and whispered so that Kairi couldn't hear him over the loud dialogue of the movie. Riku's breath caught in his throat, a feeling that he didn't experience often and didn't like now of all times. The question had been delivered on such a plaintive tone, even for Sora it was asked too lightly, too open-ended and Riku found himself without words to respond to it for once in his and Sora's shared life.

"I said: what are you doing?" Sora asked again, his tone becoming a little more desperate under the confusion as Kairi was starting to catch on that Sora's mind was not on either her or the movie and she nudged him slightly without looking to try to regain his perspective.

"Uh…I…Um, nothing." Riku choked on the words, they tasted so foul, full of a weakness that he never thought he'd posses. He quickly lifted his arm off of Sora and pretended to massage a crick out of it. Sora blinked his big, slightly vacant blue eyes at him and turned back to Kairi and the popcorn. Riku sighed and slumped back in his seat, even in the dark of the theater those blue eyes were so a light and clear. He smacked himself gently on the forehead and rubbed his face, trying to rid himself of the new memory of the blunder and the thought of those gorgeous blue eyes staring right at him.

The rest of the evening passed slowly for Riku, his mind focused on his desire to avoid looking at Sora or Sora and Kairi together, for every time he did he was overcome with a feeling he couldn't quite describe. Jealousy? No, it didn't burn in the back of his head and his eyes like jealousy did. Embarrassment? No, he had no knowledge of ever having regretted his actions or words so embarrassment was never something he had accomplished. Perhaps it was a mixture of the two, or maybe it was something else, something that couldn't be described in words alone.

"Are you going to finish that?" Kairi's words were muffled from the last bite of sweet pork dumpling in her mouth. Her chopsticks were pointing at Riku's plate, where he'd left his shrimp dumpling barely touched.

"Huh?" Riku snapped out of his stupor and stared at the girl beside him with a look that would have been better suited on Sora's face.

"I said…" Kairi swallowed before speaking this time.

"I heard you." Riku cut her off and snatched up his dumpling with his chopsticks, plopping it on Kairi's plate with a soft "thup".

"You okay?" Sora put down his tea after finishing the last sip and stared across the table at Riku, ignoring the munching sounds coming from the girl at his right. "You seem pretty down, I thought you were doing better since we got back, Dr Nygori said so."

"I'm fine." Riku muttered, he still hadn't told Sora that he had been skipping his visits with the island therapist for the last three weeks. He hated Dr Nygori anyway, what did she know of his time as Ansem, or of what it was like to wander the darkness, suffering alone and hopeless? Riku picked up his tea and sipped it slowly, trying to calm himself down, wanting to escape even the slightest memories of what had happened six months ago in that dark, dark world that belonged only to the Nobodies.

"Okay…Say wasn't it funny when the dog jumped on the roof and then barked down the chimney and the guy thought it was a demon trying to get into the house?" Sora smiled through his words, unable to keep a straight face.

"Oh yeah, that was so funny!" Kairi swallowed the last of the shrimp dumpling and laughed with Sora, the sound burning Riku to the core.

"Yeah…Hilarious." Riku managed to fake a smile and let the words tumble lifelessly from his mouth. He stared across the table now, suddenly unable to keep his eyes off of Sora. That face, those eyes, they complimented that smile so well, Riku's grip tightened on his tea cup as if it could somehow break the spell that he was suddenly under. He stared for what felt like an eternity, the sound of laughter muffled by the pounding of his heart in his ears. He saw every detail of Sora in this moment, and every one was as beautiful as the last sun set of summer on the Island, from the curve of his cheeks when he smiled to the way his tall hair moved yet never changed to the soft texture of his body, still girlish but slowly becoming strong like his own. Riku suddenly wanted nothing more than to touch that hair and kiss those cheeks and…That body…Oh god the things he suddenly wanted to do to it; he felt the desire burn in his gut like lava. He began to sweat, his heart racing so fast he thought it would escape right out of his chest like a dying Heartless. The louder the pounding in his ears the more tightly he gripped the tea cup. Louder and louder the pounding got and with every beat the desire seemed to well up in his chest and burn his lungs, his stomach, his very heart.

The tea cup shattered in his hands, and the hot tea pouring over Riku's fingers and palms seemed to snap him out of his trance. Sora and Kairi stopped laughing and stared at him.

"What was that?" Sora sounded more surprised than usual. He stared deer-in-the-headlights at Riku's hands, which were now turning red with first degree burns form the tea.

"Riku's teacup breaking," Kairi spoke matter-of-factly, as if this sort of thing happened to Riku at every meal she shared with him.

"What you do to it, Riku?" Sora smiled at his friend, teasing him.

"_Oh god, please don't smile at me again…" _Riku's thoughts started to reform and he quickly busied himself with wiping the hot tea off of his hands as an excuse not to look at the smile that left him so transfixed. "Nothing…It just, I don't know, broke."

"I always knew you liked your tea hot, but that was too much." Kairi laughed lightly with Sora, but the boy seemed to find it less funny. Riku sighed and tossed his soiled napkin on the table.

"Hey! Can I get another cup of tea?" He called out to a passing waitress, but it was just another excuse not to look at Sora. The waitress grimaced slightly at the tone of the command but went back into the kitchen to fetch the tea anyway. Riku kept his head down his face burning red as the sensation of the spell Sora had unwittingly had him under slowly wore off, panting slightly as his heart returned to its normal range. Sora and Kairi seemed to fail to notice his predicament and had long since returned to their chat about the movie, Sora acting out some of his favorite parts and Kairi laughing at every flick of Sora's hand and facial expression and every time she did Sora's smile seemed to get brighter and merrier. The waitress Riku had commanded came over to their table and haughtily thunked his new tea down on the table in front of him, Riku ignored her and she sniffed indignantly as she turned quickly to attend to other guests. This time Riku did not touch the tea.

After the meal Riku discreetly went into the manager's office to pay for the ruined tea cup. Sora and Kairi stood outside the restaurant in a pool of light from one of the few street lamps on the island. Kairi pulled the fluffy faux fur collar of her coat up around her cheeks against the wind and looked up at Sora before reaching over to him and fussing with the collar of his coat, pulling it up to his ears so they wouldn't get cold. She gently touched the red bead on Sora's new earring as she moved her hands away from him and stuffed them into her pockets to protect her from the chill in the sea air.

"You know, I got you that earring," she looked up over her fluff collar at Sora.

"I know, but it was Riku's idea to have our ears pierced," Sora said absent-mindedly, staring instead at his reflection in the restaurant's dark window, craning his neck above his collar so that the light caught the red bead. "He has a black one you know."

"Yes, I know." Kairi turned to look at the two of them standing in the window, frowning for just a moment before fixing her wind-battered hair style.

"Do you think Riku's really okay?" Sora turned suddenly and asked Kairi directly. Kairi turned and looked at him, smiling in his lovely blue eyes.

"I'm sure he's fine, he seems like the same old Riku to me. Why; do you think something's wrong?" Kairi tried to think of some way to turn the conversation away from Riku.

"Well, he's been acting kinda weird lately. Like tonight in the theater he…" Sora was cut off by the ringing of the bell on the restaurant door. Riku stepped out; pulling his trench coat over his shoulders his brow was furrowed, making him look very cross.

"Thirteen-hundred munny for a tea cup…What a rip." He grumbled as he walked over to the pool of light where Kairi and Sora were waiting.

"Aw, no big deal for you, mister munny bags you've got that great job over at the jewelry store." Kairi seemed to flutter her eyelashes a bit at Riku when she mentioned that he had a rather decent income and access to many shiny, expensive things.

"Whatever." Riku scoffed at the remark and started walking down the street towards the neighborhood the three lived in.

The walk wasn't long, only about three miles, but Riku could hear his friends chattering behind him the whole way. He knew without even looking that Kairi was hanging on Sora's arm, smiling up at him, her head resting just below his shoulder. Sora may have even put his arm around Kairi's waist now, the two walking as one, hips touching. The thought stung Riku behind his eyes and caused his spine to prickle with thousands of tiny hot needles. He hunched his shoulders and pulled up the collar of his trench coat, trying to hide the hurt look on his face and keep his pace steady. Another twinkle of laughter rose up behind him and yet another pang of that strange feeling stuck itself to Riku's ribs. He was so caught up in trying to keep a steady pace that he walked right by Kairi's house.

"Um, Riku?" Sora's voice pierced the concentration that Riku had worked so tirelessly to build up. He turned and realizing his mistake, hurried back to stand on Kairi's stoop.

"Damn cold…" He muttered his excuse, "just want to get out of it is all." Kairi ignored him but Sora raised a confused eyebrow.

"Since when did you get cold?" He asked and Riku suddenly felt like he'd been punched in the gut.

"Good Night boys." Kairi's voice interrupted Riku's defeat. She leaned forward slowly and kissed Sora on the lips. Sora happily accepted the kiss, but didn't seem interested in returning it, as if the whole matter of Kairi wanting him was trifle. But Riku felt the kiss burn like Kairi had just poured acid in his eyes. A feeling like the one from at the restaurant suddenly returned and the silent night came alive with sound, at least for Riku. Time slowed and all he could do was stare at the two kissing. The world spun and he wanted to vomit as the inside of his head screamed but his throat remained numb, dry and empty. He started to pant to try to keep up with his heart, now banging in his chest at blistering speed. A thousand thoughts rushed through his head; why couldn't that be him kissing the soft lips of the Keybearer? Why was she able to and not he? What made her so worthy to touch him like that? She wasn't worthy, he should hurt her, no, kill her. He should throw that disgusting hag off of those perfect lips and claim them for his own. Riku's eyes burned like he might cry, but he clenched his jaw in a reflex carefully honed over his whole lifetime to keep the tears from coming. His body shook and he clenched his fists inside of his coat pockets, praying with all his might that that damned kiss would stop, just stop and never happen again. After what seemed like hours, Kairi released Sora and went inside her house, leaving Riku alone with Sora for the first time the entire evening.

As they walked down the street towards Sora's house, the younger boy babbled on about the movie, about how excited he was to be going to visit the King and invited Riku to come along and about Kairi. Riku simply nodded and grunted his responses to all of this, but accepted the invitation to see the King. They reached Sora's house after only two blocks and Riku suddenly found himself wishing that it had been two-thousand. He followed Sora up to the front door and the two stood there together under the porch light.

"Riku?" Sora turned after unlocking the door and looked up at his best friend.

"Yeah?" Riku had regained a great deal of control over himself in this situation, even though standing so close to Sora had reignited the flame in his chest for the third time that evening.

"Are you sure you're okay? I know you haven't been to see Dr Nygori, I only said that to make Kairi think you're still going to her." Sora was showing a great deal of insight all of a sudden, which caught Riku off guard.

"I'm fine, buddy, really." Riku forced a smile at Sora. Sora returned the smile and the sight of his blue eyes shining in the dim light nearly made Riku's knees buckle.

"I just want you to be okay, we've been through a lot together and I just want for you to be okay." Sora had reverted to his old self and Riku relaxed a little. But what Sora did next threw Riku's entire soul for a loop. Sora came forward and gave his friend a warm hug, "you're my best friend, Riku."

Riku's body was suddenly on fire, every inch of him burned and his toes curled in his boots at Sora's touch. He felt every strand of hair on his body stand on end and his heart beat so loudly that it must have left a ringing in Sora's ears he was so close to Riku's chest. Riku held his breath in a desperate attempt to keep from panting, his lungs slowly burning in his chest from the heat in his heart. His palms became slick in his pockets and his neck broke out in a series of cold droplets of sweat. He could feel his pulse race in his throat and suddenly he felt as if he was going to choke on his own tongue in his throat. The insides of his thighs even started to heat and sweat and the sensation blurred Riku's vision. He felt light headed all of a sudden, as if he might faint from the shear heat that was welling up all over his body. He had to escape or he was going to pass out right in front of Sora. He couldn't have that, Sora would think him weak and then the two of them would never have time like this again. Riku's mind was in a whirl, he felt the clammy hands of panic gripping at the back of his neck, he had to do something. Sora was still holding him and in a split second Riku's hands shot out of his coat pockets and gripped Sora's arms. Riku threw the younger boy against the door of the house and, before he could even think of anything else, pressed his lips hard against Sora's.

Instantly the fire cooled, leaving Riku feeling as if he had just dove into the deepest part of the ocean that surrounded the islands on a hot day. His sweat evaporated, and the heat in his chest went with it. His heart, still pounding in his chest, slowed to a steadier beat. Riku felt relief like he had never felt before, a relief that was almost equal to him seeing Sora finally awaken from his long slumber, equal to what it was like to return to his normal form, to see the light again, to come home to the islands and see his dad alive and well and go out with Sora to the Island again. But it was not to last.

Sora was shocked by the force of the kiss and he groped madly for the handle of his door, which fell open the second he touched it. He stumbled away from Riku into the entry hall of his house and stared at his best friend with huge vacant eyes, his hand absently wiping the kiss from his mouth. He said nothing but slowly closed the door on Riku, his glassy, shocked eyes staring until the door was finally closed. Riku heard the sound of the bolt being locked, and the little house door may as well have been the Door to Darkness at this point, so hopeless was the sinking feeling taking over Riku's body. This time, the tears did fall and Riku hung his head and cried silently as he walked slowly to his own house next door. He slowly ascended the steps to his front door, picking up the mail that his father had failed to get, probably because the man was too weak from recovering from his illness to notice that it had even come. Riku unlocked the door and stepped into the silent house. He sorted the mail on the kitchen table for his father to find later, a bill here and there, a post card for him from his mother on her trip to the land across the sea, a letter from his father's doctor, probably test results. None of this meant anything to Riku now. He hung his coat up in the hall closet and quietly went upstairs to his room, being careful not to wake his father. He shut the door to his room behind him and sighed, wiping the tears from his cheeks.

"What am I going to do about seeing him at school…?" Riku asked himself as he fell face first into his pillow.

_To be Continued_

Spangle


	2. Chapter 2

Spangle

A 180 Degree Turn

II

Riku's body trembled as his hands ran over the soft, smooth texture of Sora's back. The silver haired boy panted softly and bent down to kiss the curves of flesh under him, the sound of Sora gasping and the feeling of the younger boy trembling beneath him made Riku's groin burn. He pressed his chest against Sora's back and nibbled gently on his thin shoulder, tasting the sweat on the young flesh, so alluring like the taste of the air on the beach at midnight. Sora moaned and Riku laid himself harder on the tender body beneath him, trailing his hands over the curves made by the younger boy's muscles, so inviting, so tender, so perfect. Riku smiled and slowly raised himself up onto his knees and coaxed Sora to turn over and get on his hands and knees before the taller boy. Sora's tongue hung out of his mouth like a thirsty dog and Riku laid a cautious hand on a spot where Sora's hair would not poke his palm; he smiled down at the eagerness of the younger boy and gently guided his mouth till…

"BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTT!!!" Riku's alarm broke the tranquil scene that his dreams had so precariously built in his sleep. The boy groaned loudly and hit the clock so hard it fell off its table before Riku rolled over onto his back.

"Crap…" He noticed the raised way of the covers and the wet spot that seemed doomed to become a regular part of his daily ritual. He sighed and threw off his covers.

"Damn you…" Riku muttered to his groin while the sleep escaped his head. He gently touched it and arched his back uncontrollably, shuddering as intense pleasure invaded his sleep drenched brain and body.

"GAaah…" Riku panted hard, his eyes wide open, "Shit, it's never been this big…I gotta get it to go down…"He swallowed briefly and gently griped it in his hand, manipulating it gently.

"Uuuuh…" Riku bit his lip to keep from moaning louder, afraid he'd wake his father and then have to explain himself. He panted through gritted teeth as he rubbed the length faster, the slight feeling of chaffing igniting an even more intense throbbing under his hand. Riku's eyes began to blur as he choked on his breath to keep from crying out in ecstasy a he pulled gently on it with each stroke.

"Uh…Uh…Uh…Oooaaaah!" Riku arched his back again and then crumpled into a fetal position on his bed, his hand a sticky mess from his little ordeal. "Tissue…" The silver haired boy stood up quickly, too quickly, and promptly fell on his floor as blood rushed down from his head and his groin into his leg muscles. He cleared his throat as if to get his body's attention and struggled to his feet, making sure to not use his sticky hand to support himself. He found the tissue box on his desk and cleaned himself until his palm was raw from the rubbing of the tissue.

"Okay…Breakfast time." Riku pulled on a pair of pajama pants over his boxers and, checking his bare chest for any evidence of what he had been doing, opened the door to his room and made his way to the stairs. He knocked softly on his father's door as he passed.

"Dad, breakfast." Riku then went down the narrow stairs of his house and turned the corner into the kitchen. He fetched some eggs from the fridge and turned on the stove. He then got a frying pan down from the pot rack and skillfully cracked the two eggs with one hand into the pan. His father, Hiro, slowly came downstairs as Riku was turning the eggs in the pan.

"Morning, kiddo." Hiro offered his son a weak smile and Riku tried to look as happy as he could for his dad. Hiro was a man in his mid thirties but years of battling a rare form of skin cancer had left him looking haggard and old; his thick silver hair was thin due to radiology treatments and was just now starting to grow back. There were scars on his neck and arms from numerous surgeries and a good chunk of his left ear was missing thanks to a tumor that had to be removed. His brown eyes always lit up when he looked at his son though, as if Riku was Hiro's crowning achievement in life. He sat down slowly at the breakfast table and leaned over to open the curtain on the large window that over looked the sea. Riku turned away when his father did this because the man was so weak that even pulling the cord to the curtain was a Herculean effort, but Hiro always insisted on doing it anyway so as not to feel quite so feeble.

"Dr Sango sent you this," Riku retrieved the letter from the night before and handed it to his father before setting the plate of eggs with a fork in front of the tired looking man. "I think it's your blood work." Riku poured some orange juice for his dad and served it with the three types of pills his father had to take everyday to bolster his immune system.

"I think you're right, kiddo, I was beginning to think that no news was good news." Hiro laughed a little and smiled at his son. Riku smiled back but couldn't seem to hide the worry in his green eyes from his dad. Hiro sighed, "You look so much like your mother when you do that…" Riku's smile contorted into a skeptical smirk, he was the spitting image of his mother, aside from his hair.

"Don't change the subject, Dad; what does the letter say?" Riku turned towards the pantry and pulled out some cereal for himself. He rummaged around in the cluttered cabinets, jammed with plastic bowls and cups that clattered on the counter as he pushed them aside; looking for a suitable bowl as his father gingerly opened the envelope. Hiro's eyes calmly scanned the jumble of charts and measurements sent to him by his doctor and carefully read the letter explaining it all.

"Well…?" Riku spit a bit of milky cereal as he sat down next to his dad to eat.

Hiro put down the letter and turned to his son, a tremendous smile gracing his face.

"There's no cancer in my lymph nodes, kiddo. I'm not going to need surgery and I'm not going to have to go live at the hospital anymore, the Doc says my white blood cell count is up high enough that I can live at home from now on."

"Dad that's great!" Riku accidentally spit milk all over his father's face, unable to control his excitement, a huge smile shot across his young face. Hiro laughed and picked up his napkin to clear his face of the milk before he reached over to pat his son on the back.

"Slow down, kiddo, I'm not a hundred percent yet." Hiro's eyes twinkled with relief and amusement before partaking in his eggs.

The inside of Riku's head was all but singing as he pulled on the light colored shirt and dark jacket that made up his winter uniform. He snatched up his bag and threw the uniform issued coat over his shoulder as he waved to his dad on the way out the door. He thought that maybe he should whistle he was so happy about his dad. But then he came to Sora's front gate and the memory of last night sprung up from the dark reaches of his mind. Kairi was there, tugging on her tights so she didn't see Riku at first, but when she stood up she smiled at him brightly.

"Hi Riku!" She showed her brilliant white teeth to him.

"Uh…Kairi…"Riku made a motion with his index finger around his mouth and Kairi looked at him strangely before pulling out a compact and looking at her teeth in the mirror.

"Gah!" Kairi feverishly wiped the spot of bright pink lipstick off of her teeth just as Sora was coming out of his house and locking the door behind him. "Thanks, Riku; I couldn't have Sora-Bora seeing me like that." Kairi showed her newly perfected teeth to him and suddenly Riku wanted nothing more than to knock them all out of her head in one strike. Sora had since made it to his gate and opened it; he stood in between Riku and Kairi now. The red bead that hung from his left ear lobe caught the morning light and the shadow accented the curve of his face for a moment.

"Hey Sora, you're on time for once." Riku forced his brain into teasing mode so it wouldn't slip back to his dreams of the previous night. Sora was notoriously late for school, having once missed all of first bell because one of his sisters had had the flu and Sora had to care for her that day; Riku regularly got on Sora's case about it, but today Sora didn't seem to notice Riku's remarks.

"Yeah, Dad has the day off today, so he's taking care of the sprites." Sora smiled happily, as if he was overjoyed to be temporarily free of the responsibility of getting his three younger sisters ready for school. Then, as if on queue, one of the young triplets came bounding out of the house half dressed.

"Soooooooooraaaaaaa!" She squealed and dodged the powerful hands of her father, Santo, as he chased her out onto the porch.

"What is it, Kiki?" Sora turned and peered over the gate at one of his five-year old sisters.

"You forget your lunch!" Kiki held up the box wrapped tightly in a blue handkerchief and held with a bit of twine. Sora smiled and took the box from his sister as Santo scoops her up into his arms. Santo was a very tall, broad-shouldered man in his late twenties, he worked as a clerk at a steel manufacturing plant on the far West side of the Island but everyone who knew him was convinced that he should go to the land across the sea and play Blitzball or fight crime. Aside from the muscles though, he looked just like Sora with his brown hair standing up in spikes, more tamed spikes than Sora Santo's hair only went in one direction, but spikes all the same rising above a gentle face and cheery blue eyes.

"Kiki! You should not come out here without your shirt!" Santo scolded his little girl as her sisters peered out of the front door, possibly planning their own escape into the yard in their dunger-roos.

"B-but I wanna to give Sora his lunch!" Kiki protested and wriggled in her father's arms, her long curly brown hair waving madly around her shoulders. Santo had to move his head to dodge the flailing tresses.

"Is this what you deal with every morning, sport?" He directed his question at his son.

"Usually I have mom's help." Sora smiled at his dad and winked one of his wide blue eyes at his sister, who giggled. "But she's not been much help with the new baby coming."

"Well, have a good day at school kids," Santo wrestled with Kiki until he had her hanging upside down from his arms, the little girl let out a peel of laughter as her father trucked her back into the house to be dressed.

"Good luck with today, Mr. Jimiru." Kairi piped and grabbed Sora's hand to make him start walking with her. Riku bit his lip hard to try to keep from screaming at seeing her do that, his own hand twitching in his pocket. Riku grabbed his arm by the elbow to try to stop it from pulling his fist out of his pocket and planting it squarely between Kairi's eyes. He gritted his teeth in the back of his mouth and tried to keep that nauseous feeling from the night before from coming back. His hand continued to twitch, as if the only thing that would satisfy it would be to snatch Sora's soft hand out of Kairi's. Riku's head tried desperately to command his heart to stop pounding like that in his chest but to no avail, it thudded away against his ribs and lungs and his palms and neck all broke out in sweat. Riku quickly caught up to Sora's side, using the boy's body to shield him from the sight of Kairi holding his hand.

"Your dad sure is fucking fertile…"Kairi said to Sora as the three walked along the sidewalk together towards the school at the East edge of the Island.

"I think it's more my mom…Maybe…I don't know." Sora shrugged and then did something that helped to cool the fire in Riku's chest, he let go of Kairi's hand and put it in his pocket. Riku sighed a little, and was able to let go of his twitching arm, for a moment, because in the next moment Kairi simply attached herself to Sora's waist by throwing her arms around it and Riku felt like his eyes were going to catch fire and burn right out of his skull. He turned his face away from the couple and promptly collided with a small girl about the age of thirteen or fourteen.

"Uh…Sorry…" Riku bent to help pick up the girl's books that had scattered in the collision. Riku straightened with the books in hand only to find that the girl was still sitting on the ground, a dumb-struck expression on her face. Riku sighed, he knew he was good looking but sometimes it was absolutely ridiculous what his looks did to the fragile hormone levels of some young girls. He bent and put the books on the ground in front of the girl with an audible and annoyed thunk. "Watch where you're going next time," he said flatly to the girl and walked briskly past her to catch up with Sora and Kairi who had stopped for him. Instantly the seated girl was lost in a wash of similarly aged girls and the sound of teenage squealing over the "encounter" could probably be heard all over the Island.

"You didn't kill her, did you?" Sora asks of Riku once he's in range. Sora seemed to think that the large crowds of girls that appeared all around Riku were some sign that he had committed some crime; no one understood this logic outside of Sora so the questions where generally ignored by Riku.

"Do I _ever__kill _them, Sora?" Riku was a little annoyed at the stupidity of the encounter with the young girl. He marched up to Sora and grabbed him by the arm, snatching him away from Kairi, "let's go; we're going to be late." Riku led Sora out of the yard and towards the main building of the school. Kairi made a pout and a small noise of disapproval at having Sora stolen but quickly skipped after the two boys into the main building.

Riku's heart was singing as he dragged Sora along with him, but the song was cut short when Sora jerked his arm away from Riku's grasp and secured both of his hands in his pant pockets. Riku was shocked and couldn't help the hurt sound escaping from his throat.

"Sora...?" The silver haired teens voice was barely a whisper.

"We'll talk at lunch," Sora's words were like bullets, leaving cold, painful holes in Riku's heart. Even Sora's gorgeous blue eyes were harsh and unnerving as they focused on Riku's face. Riku turned away quickly, opening his locker and pushing his books around to hide the burn of embarrassment and hurt that he felt on his face. Sora was about to do likewise when Kairi caught up to them. 

"Come on Sora," this time Kairi grabbed the Key Bearer's arm and dragged him through the doors into the building, "the bell's going to ring any second."

"B-but...My books!" Sora's face returned to its usual softness as he protested being jerked along the hall.

The bell did ring and Riku had to tear his eyes away from the retreating back of Sora and dash off to his first class. He opened the door and smiled sheepishly at Mrs. Yukimo who tut-tuted him about tardiness and marked the digression on her role sheet. Riku took a seat near the window and spent the rest of the class staring out of it at the bright sunny day that was coming up on the Island. A little troop of kindergarteners marched across the yard in their winter uniform coats, making them look like a multi-colored caterpillar as their sensei guided them towards the outer portion of the school yard, they where probably learning about leaves or something Riku figured.

The rest of the morning followed at about the same pass as it had started, Riku trudged from one class to the next, not paying attention to any of them, he could study at home. Instead he day-dreamed about what it would be like to be Sora's boyfriend; spending time on the beach together, dinners at the restaurants, picnics at the beach and of course, some far less innocent things cropped up in his mind every now and then, things so dirty Riku almost felt himself blushing just thinking about them.

The lunch bell rang in the middle of the day and Riku found himself wincing at its toll. He packed his bag and went down the stairs to buy some food at the cafeteria. He stood in line and ignored the flutters of passing girls, sighing over his unearthly good looks. The teen took a tray of food and sighed, making his way down the hall and up the stairs to the roof where he usually shared lunch with Sora and Kairi. Once he opened the door he noticed Sora, leaning on the safety railing, facing away from him, the little blue bundle of the brunette's lunch untouched at his feet. Kairi was not present since she always had to walk all the way across campus and stand in line; there had been a time when Riku had reveled in this precious time he had alone with Sora, but today he willed Kairi to hurry and banish the cold, unfamiliar Sora that stood on the roof with Riku now. Sora stood and turned around to face Riku, his face sad and his eyes as cold as Arctic ice. He walked slowly over to Riku, his hands in fists as if what he as about to do was something he had long prepared for.

"Riku," Sora's voice wavered ever so slightly.

"Yeah?" was what Riku wanted to say, but it caught in his throat, making the sound that came out of him sound like a whimper and Riku suddenly felt embarrassed and ashamed.

"What you did last night was weird...I want you to never do it again. I feel for you, but I feel for Kairi too, I don't know how I feel about either of you but I do feel. I searched long and hard for both of you because of those feelings. I'm sorry but right now I don't feel for you the way you do for me." Sora melted then, his eyes growing gentle again showing his true guilt for hurting his friend's feelings.

"It...It's okay..."Riku choked the words out, trying to suppress the hurt that welled up behind his eyes, threatening to make him cry. "_He thinks I'm a crazy obsessed bastard..."_ was the thought that pierced the heart of the teen. He hung his head and took his place next to Sora's untouched lunch to begin eating his food; it was cold, a fitting match to the hole in his heart.

After school Riku was on the Blitzball field with the school team for practice. The coach was raving about how great it was to have Riku back and how they were going to take on the team from the other islands and maybe even go to tournament where they would face teams from the land across the sea. Riku didn't hear much of it, he had long since grown used to his coach raving about his physical prowess in the sport; he was good at everything from the football like portion to the water polo like portion to the soccer like portion of the whole game. What he was really doing was watching Kairi and some of her friends put up a banner on the side of the gym, Sora was there too, pulling on a rope to hoist the banner up to its hooks. Kairi was the president of the student activities committee and she often drafted Sora and Riku to help do things like hang banners and pass out flyers or move things like tables and chairs.

"There are so few boys on the committee, we _really need_ you guys to help," was what she always said and Riku sighed and rubbed his eyes with one hand remembering how he used to regularly fall for that routine.

"Okay ladies!" The couch barked at the all boy team suddenly, "let's pair up and practice foot passes!" The team scrambled for a moment to get into two parallel lines and start passing the Blitzball back and forth. Riku's feet moved without him thinking much about it, kicking the ball back and forth to the guy across from him, his eyes actually on what Sora was doing across the field. The banner unfurled with a whooshing sound and revealed it's brightly colored surface; there was to be a royalty themed dance in one week.

_"A dance!" _Riku's mind lit up with an idea, _"That's a perfect place to tell Sora I love him! I can prove to him that I'm not a nut; I can show him how true my feelings for him are!" _The excitement of professing the love that had burned in his chest for so long distracted Riku so much that he moved his foot too late and tripped over the ball, landing on his face in the dirt.

"What the heck is the matter with you Riku!?" The coach barked at him, "didn't I just get done raving about you!? Don't tell me you're going soft!"

"Nah, sorry coach, just miscalculated," Riku laughed it off and went back to his auto-pilot way of passing the ball, his eyes back on Sora's soft smile.

_To Be Continued_

Spangle


End file.
